Moon Randolph Homestead, Missoula, Montana

I’m taking a photography class at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Missoula, and on Saturday as part of the class we all headed to the Moon Randolph Homestead. I had read about it in the Missoulian a while ago but really didn’t know much about it.

Now I do.

At least visually.

It’s a homestead that was founded by the Moon family and then handed to the in-laws, the Randolphs. It’s been continually farmed for over 100 years. The county of Missoula bought it in 1998 to conserve it. Caretakers live there to maintain it. There is an apple orchard and a garden.

And goats!

We only saw two – this whether and a doe. The whether was exceptionally friendly. The doe, not so much. I reached in to pet her and she butt my hand away. If there were others they were far out on the hills grazing.

There are a number of old buildings and lots and lots of detritus around to photograph. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be out taking pictures. The sky was that perfect Montana blue and there were no clouds in sight. The temps were in the 70ies. We could not have asked for a better day to be out and about. There are 16 of us in the class and we were given an assignment for the next class – we could take the photos on the homestead or at home. We are learning to work with our cameras out of auto mode and to make informed decisions with settings. We also had to pick a shape (circle, triangle, etc.) and look for it around us and present the best photo of that shape in addition to two other photos on two different camera settings.

I picked circle ’cause I might just take another photo of the yurt but I did take some on the homestead:

I found some interesting holes in trees. This is the best of the lot.

There were some snowberries still on branches. The hubby argued that these were spheres not circles but the teacher said they would count.

And and apple, rotting still on a tree. You can see the beautiful sky in the background.

I still might shoot the yurt – I don’t know. What do you think? Any of these look good to you? I also took some scenery shots around the place.

The old barn dominated the landscape. A lot of people went up to take close up photos of the wood but that didn’t float my boat. I don’t think I’m ever going to be a great photographer – I just want to learn how to work my camera and to then be able to take a better picture.

This one intrigued me. I thought the old door was cool. I didn’t expect my reflection in the window. I think it looks kind of ghostly. Like the ghost of visitors past….

I took this one for the hubby….of course. The rust on the sign is pretty cool.

In addition to cheating on the Happy Goats, I also cheated on the Farm cats. The teacher said she had been out there many, many times and had never seen a cat. The hubby said of course not – I had never been there! He was a very friendly kitty. He came right over to me for some pets.

All in all it was a wonderful day and I was able to see another interesting place in my new home state. We stopped for sushi dinner on the way home so it ended up being a bit of a date too. No dinner dishes for me! It’s rare that we get to spend a whole day together and we both enjoyed it. I’ll let you know how my class turns out.